Today’s strip serves no purpose whatsoever aside from moving us one day closer to the end of this “story” arc, and to Funky’s 50th anniversary, and to Tom Batiuk’s retirement. Buck’s inane question receives an inane answer from Bull, and everyone smirks. I just can’t get over the fact that had Buck not invited the Bushkas, Bull would be sitting unawares in his basement instead of in the nosebleed seats as his decades-old rushing record is challenged.

Why would Bull care? It’s not like the kid breaking his record is going to become a significant character in the strip. For better or worse (well, for worse), he is the only jock in this strip that matters in any way. Summer and Keisha are in the cornfield. Cayla has morphed into a completely different person since she played softball. Crankshaft has his own strip. Fishtick Annie only popped up to support Bull’s coaching efforts. Buck is only here to bring Bull into strips because all of his “friends” have abandoned him. All of the other athletes who ever got a name (Big Mac, Jarrod Posey, Mickey Lopez, Matt Miller, Wedgeman) appeared in fewer strips combined than Moon Mile Meek. Bull is it if this strip ever wants to address sports, and he knows it.

The yellow-haired fellow behind Buck in panel 3 is smiling terrifyingly hard. The side of his mouth has almost reached eye level.

I don’t know how they do things in Ohio, but ’round these parts, Bull would have been invited to the game by the school and would either be watching from the announcer’s booth or the sidelines. There also would likely be a special tribute to him in recognition of his years of service as a player and a coach.

Of course, it could be that no one at Westview likes Bull or feels like doing anything for him. They’re all probably still ticked off about him digging up part of the field.

Based on the actual dialogue balloons from these strips this week, I can only surmise that Buck says something to Bull, Bull responds, Buck or Bull makes an asinine comment and then they stand/sit in silence for twenty minutes or so before Buck follows up on what they were talking about. It’s how they stretch out one conversation over four hours.

“So, want to go to the game?”
“Yes.”
(Thirty five minutes pass)
“Do you have tickets?”
“No, we can buy them at the box office.”
(Twenty six minutes pass)
“Do you want to take my car?”
“No, I need to get gas, so I can do it on my way home from the game.”
(Forty seven minutes pass)
“So shall I open the door for you?”
“I certainly fucking hope so.”
(One hundred eighty nine minutes pass)
“Thank you for getting the door for me.”
“No problem.”
(Sixty one minutes pass)
“How did it get so dark so fast?”
(Third person interjects)
“Because it took you three fucking hours to walk through the door, you damn moron.”

You know, I would take this as just a wry comment, but given how Bull is constantly portrayed as “THIS MAN IS LOSING HIS MIND AND WAS AN IDIOT TO START WITH SO HE’S EVEN DUMBER NOW, BECAUSE CTE SOMEHOW”, it’s probably more “I’m not sure because my brain is mush, isn’t that hilarious?”.
I cannot stand Batiuk’s writing.

You’ve proposed an interesting hypothesis. Suppose Act 3 is actually set in TomBa’s view of the afterlife. Westview is a combination of Hell and Purgatory. Characters who no longer appear (Summer, for example) have completed their time of purification in Purgatory and have moved on to Heaven. Those suffering everlasting torment remain in Westview (except for the occasional side trip like the one to accommodate Holly’s mother).

This, admittedly, would be quite creative and probably is not at all an explanation for the episodic mess we’re experiencing.

“The possibility”??? It’s the first game of the season thus his rushing record will certainly be broken unless the kid gets seriously injured or something, which of course is a definite possibility. What’s with Buck’s malevolent smirk in panel three? isn’t he supposed to like Bull?